Carbon blacks are generally produced in a furnace-type reactor by pyrolyzing a hydrocarbon feedstock with hot combustion gases to produce combustion products containing particulate carbon black.
Carbon blacks may be utilized as pigments, fillers, reinforcing agents, and for a variety of other applications. Carbon blacks are widely utilized as fillers and reinforcing pigments in the compounding and preparation of rubber compositions and plastic compositions. Carbon blacks are generally characterized on the basis of their properties including, but not limited to, their surface areas, surface chemistry, aggregate sizes, and particle sizes. The properties of carbon blacks are analytically determined by tests known to the art, including iodine adsorption number (I.sub.2 No.), nitrogen adsorption surface area (N.sub.2 SA), dibutyl phthalate adsorption (DBP), dibutyl phthalate adsorption of the crushed carbon black (CDBP), cetyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide absorption value (CTAB), Tint value (TINT), Dmode, Dst, .DELTA.D50, and Number Median D.sub.c /D.sub.p.
It is generally understood that the properties of a carbon black affect the properties of rubber or plastic compositions containing the carbon black. For example, the introduction of carbon black into a rubber or plastic composition during formation of the composition will generally affect the viscosity of the rubber or plastic composition. Lower viscosity rubber or plastic compositions are advantageous as they are more easily processed. Therefore, it is advantageous to have a carbon black that imparts a lower viscosity to rubber or plastic compositions during processing, without adversely affecting other properties of the rubber or plastic composition.